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A New Season of Model Railroading in the 4th Division

Written by Cliff Green
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Cliff Green, Grab Iron Editor

The 2015-2016 4th Division (PNR, NMRA) model railroading season is under way and I anticipate another good year of clinics, train shows, layout tours, meets, and conventions. If you haven’t attended one of the many excellent clinics in this Division I highly recommend them – the presenters are skilled modelers and most of the clinics have at least one (if not more) MMR (Master Model Railroader) attending. More information on 4D clinics is available here.

Every month I add new (or re-newed) 4D members to the Grab Iron subscriber list. If you are seeing a Grab Iron post (or e-mail notification) for the first time: Welcome!

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Welcome to the New 4DPNR Website

Written by Cliff Green
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Cliff Green

You may notice the “visual look” of the Grab Iron e-mail notifications has changed, and if you click on the “read more” link you may notice that the 4DPNR website look has changed as well.

Welcome to the new 4th Division website!

(Note – “4dpnr.org” and “4dpnr.com” are now both pointing to the new website. It’s possible, however, that the transition hasn’t made it everywhere in the Internet and if you visit “4dpnr.org” you will be seeing the old website. You may also want to “refresh” your browser.)

Why did we update the 4th Division website?

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Westside Clinic April 14th, Bremerton

Written by Cliff Green
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Bill Hupé

This coming Tuesday, April 14th, is our next Westside Clinic in Bremerton. The clinic is “Narrow Gauge Geared Locos” and will be presented by Steve Hauff.

For the March clinic, thanks go to Steve Neupert for presenting “Making Sure Your Freight Cars Are Ready for the Layout.” We also thank Jack “The Tool Man” Hamilton for sharing 4th Division, PNR and NMRA news, as well as sharing his screw head capture drives. Bob Jensen provided the latest news on the Bremerton Northern Model Railroad layout. He invited those present to join the BNMR at Retsil Veterans Home on April 4th and 5th.

We were joined by visitors Steve Hauff and his wife, Steve Ragan, and Bob Preece.

As always we will have a “Model Contest” and “Show And Tell.” Coffee and cookies will be provided. Please come and bring a friend.

For those visiting us for the first time our clinics are held at the United Way of Kitsap Building in downtown Bremerton (647 4th Street) at 7:00 PM. For more information contact me (Bill Hupé) at whopay@tscnet.com or 360-621-5041.

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Welcome, New and Renewed Members, Grab Iron Notification List

Written by Cliff Green
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Cliff Green

Welcome, new (and renewed) 4th Division NMRA members! I’ve updated the Grab Iron e-mail notification list with new members as well as members that have renewed or changed their e-mail addresses. Any time a Grab Iron blog post is created and published you will receive an e-mail notification. If you do not wish to receive these notifications, let me (Cliff, cliffg@codewrangler.net) know and I’ll be happy to remove you.

Many train related events are happening over the next couple of months. A list of events in the NMRA Pacific Northwest Region (PNR) can be found here. Events of particular 4D interest include:

  • The Narrow Gauge Symposium is less than a week away, their website is http://www.sn3symposium-2015.com.
  • The 4D spring meet will be held on June 6th in Bellevue.
  • Portland Daylight Express, the NMRA national convention, will be held August 23 – 28, 2015. Additional information is available at www.nmra2015portland.org.
  • The annual Olympia area layout tours will take place May 16th. Per the NMRA Pacific Northwest Region calendar, additional information will be available from Scott Buckley, sbuckley54@comcast.net.

There is a wealth of model railroading expertise available in this area, and a good place to encounter it is at one of the 4th Div clinics (see the 4D web site “Clinics” page for more info). I urge everyone to take advantage of it whenever possible. Most of the clinic organizers provide overviews and reports in the Grab Iron, but reading blog posts can’t compare to attending in person.

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Grab Iron Comments Are Enabled Again

Written by Cliff Green
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Cliff Green

I’ve enabled comments on 4th Division Grab Iron posts (again … in the past it’s been a battle against blog spam). Besides allowing comments on general posts, we have a new Grab Iron contributor that is going to be writing posts on narrow gauge topics, and will be encouraging discussions and feedback through comments.

A name and e-mail address is required to be entered to write a comment on a Grab Iron post. The e-mail address will not be displayed to comment viewers, but the name will be. I will be asking for a real name versus an alias or handle to help keep comments spam-free and civil.

The first comment from each person requires moderation (i.e. approval) by me (or other Grab Iron admin), with subsequent comments not requiring moderation (this could change if comments start getting out of hand).

I’m looking forward to the discussions!

Discussions and Comments, Oh My!

Discussions and Comments, Oh My!

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Grab Iron Editor E-mail Back in Service

Written by Cliff Green
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Cliff Green

(If you receive multiple notifications about this post, please excuse the duplication. I’ve been trying to figure out how to “re-publish” a post, but am running into difficulties.)

If you tried e-mailing me (Grab Iron editor Cliff Green) sometime in the last week and it bounced back to you, my e-mail (cliffg@codewrangler.net) is back up and working. A re-send is appreciated, and I’ll respond as quick as possible.

I learned a lesson: When switching a domain name from one service provider to another, and they say it will take up to seven days to switch, they really mean seven days. In this day of (almost) instantaneous transactions over the Internet, apparently there are some things that move at the speed of … ummm, not-light (as in, slower than snail mail!).

Why does it take so long?

Why does it take so long?

If you’re curious about what a “domain name” is, it is the “abc.com” or “xyz.net” or “whatever.whatever” identifier used for web sites, e-mail, and other Internet functionality. People or organizations can register their own domain names instead of using one provided by their Internet service provider (e.g. Comcast) or e-mail provider (e.g. gmail). My personal domain is “codewrangler.net”, which I use both for my own web site (currently under construction – it will soon include a software development blog and a model railroading blog, among other things) as well as my personal e-mail. The 4th Division’s domain name is 4dpnr (and there are other 4D domain names including 4dho.com and 4dntrak.com). We manage these through a hosting and domain provider named 1and1.com. A couple of additional definitions for domains names are here and here.

What is the advantage of a personal or organizational domain name? It’s unique and will always be your own (as long as you keep it current and paid for), no matter who you use for your actual Internet connection (e.g. Comcast, CenturyLink, Frontier Communications, etc).

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4D PNR Modular Groups Displaying at United Northwest Club’s Model Train Show & Marketplace

Written by Bob Stafford
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Bob Stafford

The 4th Division, Pacific Northwest Region, National Model Railroad Association will be participating at the United Northwest Club’s 24th Annual Model Train Show and Marketplace Saturday, February 28th and Sunday March 1st. The show is held at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe, Washington. The show offers over 50,000 square feet of family fun! Over 250 vender and swap tables. View over 20 layouts of several different scales. Modeling clinics will be offered on both days. Doors open at 10 AM both days. For more information visit http://www.unwclub.org/unwshow.html.

Division-sponsored groups that will be present are The 4th Division HO Modular Group, 4th Division Hi-Rail O Gauge Modular Group, 4dNTRAK Modular Group, and The 4th Division OmNi-Rail Modular Group. The division will also have a membership booth.

The 4th Division HO Modular Group consists of about 20 active members with about 50 modules, a staging yard, and 6 corners. They get together monthly for breakfast. The group sets up its modular layout at about 8 to 9 events annually for charity, community service, 4th Division events, and fundraisers. For more information visit http://www.4dho.com.

The 4th Division Hi-Rail O Gauge Modular Group consists of about 18 members who collect anything from ancient Marx or Ives tinplate to the modern die-cast Lionel and MTH trains of today. The layout is O gauge, 3 rail. Boy do they run trains on it! The Hi-Rail Group has 24 modules, 4 corner modules and 4 yard modules, and the number is growing to build large displays with lots of moving trains. The current capacity of the layout is 4 long moving trains and 3 trolley cars. The group meets periodically as needed for breakfast and to conduct business meetings. The Hi-Rail Group attends 8 to 9 shows a year in the Puget Sound region, from Lynden, Washington to the North, to Portland, Oregon to the South. For more information contact Ed Ives at gresley7@gmail.com.

The 4dNTRAK Modular Group has been displaying modules and running trains for thirteen years. The group started out with four corner modules supplied by the 4th Division. Members have built more than 50 additional modules in the years since. The layout includes a new spectacular yard built in 2013 with 120+ turnouts and the capacity to handle many prototype-length trains! For more information, visit http://www.4dntrak.org.

The fourth and newest 4D PNR sponsored modular group is the OmNi-Rail Modular Group. The group has been running trains now for a bit over 2 years. The 4D PNR financed the construction of the four corner modules. The nine members of the group have built over 20 additional modules for public display layouts. The OmNi-Rail name is to represent “All Encompassing” for N Scale modular design. The intention is to bring NTRAK, Free-moN, and Bent Track to one club, so the design incorporates the best of each. It is also designed to accept older modules from these different disciplines with minor modifications. The design uses a dog-bone linear base design with no bridge tracks and power pole connections. There is also a one track branch line called the OmNi-Branch. The sky is the limit on different module designs. For more information go to http://omni-rail.net.

4D PNR HO Modular Group Layout on display.

4D PNR HO Modular Group Layout on display.

4dNTRAK Modular Group, Grab-Iron, Hi-Railers Report, HO Modular Group, Model Train Show, OmNi-Rail

Grab Iron E-mail Notifications and Welcome to New Members

Written by Cliff Green
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Cliff Green

cliff_greenWelcome, new 4th Division NMRA members! I’ve completed updating the Grab Iron e-mail notification list with the new members from the last two months as well as members that have renewed and changed their e-mail addresses. Any time a Grab Iron blog post is created and published you will receive an e-mail notification.

As always, if you do not wish to receive these notifications, let me (Cliff, cliffg@codewrangler.net) know and I’ll be happy to remove you.

Over the last few weeks minor updates have been made to the 4th Div web site (www.4dpnr.com, mostly updating contact and clinic info). In upcoming months more significant updates will happen, including web templates that are more “responsive”, which means it handles smart phones and tablets in a more intelligent manner. More details in future Grab Iron posts.

There is a wealth of model railroading expertise available in this area, and a good place to encounter it is at one of the 4th Div clinics (see the 4D web site “Clinics” page for more info). I urge everyone to take advantage of it whenever possible. Most of the clinic organizers provide overviews and reports in the Grab Iron, but reading blog posts can’t compare to attending in person.

Happy holidays to everyone, and I hope you have time to do a bit of model railroading in addition to (or in conjunction with!) family and friend time.

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Cliff Green to Edit Grab Iron

Written by Al Lowe
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Al Lowe

After serving as your Grab Iron editor for the past ten years and webmaster for eleven, it’s time for me to move on and let some younger blood bring in fresh ideas.

Cliff Green

Cliff Green

I’m pleased to report that Cliff Green has agreed to be our new young blood. Cliff is a professional computer programmer and is well versed in current technology. I know he will continue to keep the 4D in the forefront of model railroad communications. Cliff has worked on the Grab Iron for over eight years; he’s the perfect man to take over this position.

Twelve years ago, we were one of the few Divisions to even have a website, but our member communication was strictly one-way. Each month, 12 paper pages arrived in members’ mailboxes, containing information up to six weeks out-of-date.

One of our first changes was to offer the Grab Iron in PDF format, emailed immediately upon publication, weeks before paper copies arrived in the mail, while saving the Division the costs of printing, addressing, and mailing. We also implemented a Division YahooGroup for email communications. But our biggest step was four years ago when Doug Bulger and I eliminated paper entirely with the Digital Grab Iron. Now, our news is disseminated instantly. Doug has agreed to stay on as the 4D’s official photographer.

I plan to stay on, too, as long as it takes to provide a smooth transition. So you may continue to email your articles (and website problems) to me or send them directly to Cliff at cliffg@codewrangler.net.

And the next time you see Cliff, give him a hearty “Thank You” for stepping up to serve the Division in this important way.

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